I rolled my own LTA box after buying the hi-res live records and NLMD'18 from Parlophone. Add NLMD'18 twice to the following list, because I bought the 16-bit and 24-bit from Parlophone. Final NLMD count? It's... complicated. Let's see: 01 Never Let Me Down (EMI 1987 CD) 02 Never Let Me Down (Tour rehearsal mix) 03 Never Let Me Down (Virgin 1995 EU) 04 Never Let Me Down (EMI 1999 remaster SHM CD) 05 NLMD CD Bonus Tracks 06 NLMD Vinyl rips 12 TWC-Girls (JP 7-inch vinyl rip) 13 Time Will Crawl Extended Dance Mix Vinyl Rip 14 Girls x 5 15 Never Let Me Down Canadian 12-inch rip 16 NLMD Promo edits 17 Time Will Crawl 2008 (MM Remix iSelect 2008) 17a --- Glass Spider Berlin 1987 --- 18 BowieStation Soundboard (Jan Erik) 19 Standing by the Berlin Wall 20 FM-AUDIENCE matrix Give me moar NLMD/Scary Spider or give me death. And just a heads-up if you're buying the hi-res LTA box download. I recently revisited these purchases because I wanted to hear more Glass Spider and more NLMD, and EVERY hi-res-download I bought from this box had a corrupted FLAC container. Fortunately, I was able to use Foobar to successfully convert everything to .WAV files (created an archiving headache, but whatever) and while there was a Foobar error message on every last track, it looks like the music inside was clean and easily extracted.
You could get lucky with just one HDD crash, whereas I have it on vinyl, cd, video, bootleg vinyl and several first copy GS show tapes (some of the same show, but different source). Even thinking about it makes me feel too dizzy. And two years ago my sister announced she'd be giving me one of her Bowie albums on vinyl ... you guessed it: NLMD (complete).
I was so proud of myself for purging the GlassSpider VHS (along with dozens of other tapes), then I discovered it was the only damn copy in the world without that channel loss on "Jean Genie" (Loss of theatre mic contact? or avoiding a publishing headache because of Frampton's solos? You decide). Accept this great gift with grace. (And I long ago archived all this to optical discs of one sort or another.)
Thanks. I'll take it. The irony is that this set cost me the most ( pre-ordered all the others) though it appears to be the weakest.
We all have our regrets about not buying items (in time), but also the joy of finally adding it to your collection, it's what collectors do.
"Anticipation is so much better." "New Career" on paper was supposed to be the best experience for me, but ... Scary, Crushed, headache-inducing Monsters. Deep-diving through the LTA years in preparation was more fun than one man deserved to have, and I love the heck out of NLMD'18. YMMV. I still don't like "Let's Dance", but LTA remains my favorite Parlophone box so far. (Although the Re:Call from "Brilliant Adventure" is awesome sauce.)
I was eight when Let's Dance came out. I remember it playing on the radio and down the Jersey shore when it was released. I do enjoy the hits on that one. Especially China Girl and Modern love. Admittedly, I'm not too familiar with the rest of the material in the set. Classic Bowie became more prominent in my adolescence and even deeper with adult life. These box sets have been great for me to explore areas I wasn't too familiar with beforehand. So, I should hold any real judgement till I listen. I could've listened to the material via streaming but I've been waiting to get this set and listen from my own rips. I haven't even ripped/listened to my Brilliant Adventures set yet. Think I've been waiting to land this one first. Speaking of which, I have some work to do...
I just finished a Flash drive of Bowie's entire officially released career (& a couple promos & boots), including the boxes. While I had definitely had heard most of it before (numerous times in most cases), what hit me the hardest is how great the Reeves post Tin Machine period was. That's definitely my fav period of the post RCA material. It took over 2 months to play it, & I actually still have the Bowie recordings from Lazarus left to play On the other hand I was surprised that I pretty much disliked Heathen, Reality & Next Day as much as I did (Well I did like Slippin' Away & Disco King). I did like Blackstar more than the three previous to it; But for me from most fav to least fav it's: 1. Box 1 period 2. Box 2 period (EXCEPT Young Americans, which I despise) 3. Box 3 period 4. BLA Box 6 5. Early 00's LIVE 6. Earthling & Outside (though I really prefer Outside trax done live) 7. Tin Machine 8. A FEW of the early pre-Mercury trax (Little Toy Soldier, Can't Help Thinking About Me, Let Me Sleep Beside You) 9. Box 4 period 10. Blackstar 11. Reality, Heathen, Next Day (both versions) 12. Deram & pre Deram period
The vinyl box looks to be OOP. If you want it, scoop it up on the secondary market now in case there isn’t a repress.
I was bidding on it on eBay this morning, but its just right out of my price range...I remember when it was under 150$ on amazon for a while, now it seems to be getting even harder to get.
The name I gave a fairly common bootleg: the 1987 band in a rehearsal space running through everything on NLMD except (of course) "Too Dizzy".
I just ordered the CD boxed set for $160, (shipped and sold by Amazon.com), with a January 20 delivery date. Either it’s a warehouse find, or it’s being reprinted. Loving the Alien 1983 - 1988 https://a.co/d/aQSftL9
If it is indeed a reprint, I expect the price may drop, especially at other sites. It’s the only box I missed out on.
I hope you actually receive this in January...please let us know when you get it. Going by the current price, it's likely Amazon found some extra 80s CD boxed sets in the warehouse, as they usually charge higher collector prices when they are selling a CD or Box that is out of print. I would be surprised if this is a reissue or repress...the price would be lower.
I was skeptical as the ship date was so far out, but it was recently moved up to Jan 4th. The payment was just withdrawn from my account, and the status has changed to preparing for shipment.
Of the five boxes I've only heard Five Years and New Career...my other 3 are sitting on a shelf sealed as I haven't gotten to them yet...I hope sometime in 2023 or 2024. I guess I disagree about New Career as I find it quite enjoyable...I am looking forward to the final installment